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c jHhemobative of the 


LIFE 


, CHAKACTEE, AND SEKVICES 




Of THE 


HON. 


ELISHA- AVHITTLESEY, 




QF CANFIELD, OHIO, 




I 

DKLlVERKt) l.V 


THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C, 1 




ON 




SUNDAY EVENIN(5, JANUARY 10, 1864, 

i 


BY 

THE PASTOK, REV. B. SUNDERLAND, D. D. 




.^ WASHINGTON, D. C. : 


McGILL & 


WITHE BOW, PRINTERS AND STEREOTYPERS. 




1864. 



SE:K/3vno3^ 



COMMEMOEATITE OV THE 



LIFE, CHARACTER, AND SERVICES 



Of THK 



HON. ELISHA WHITTLESEY, 

OF CANFIELD, OHIO, 



DELIVERED IN' 



THE FIRST PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WASHINGTON, D. C. 



ON 



SUNDAY EVENING, JANUARY 10, 1864, 



BY 



THE PASTOR, REV. B. SUNDERLAND, D. D. 



WASHINGTON, D. C. : 
McQILL & WITHEROW, PRINTERS AND S T ER EOT Y PER S. 

1864. 






DEDICATION. 



To the children of the honorable man deceased to his family kindred, 
to his fellow Christians and countrymen throughout the land, is this 
humble tribute to his memory earnestly subscribed, with the heartfelt 
prayer that his virtues may be emulated, and his example followed to 
the latest time. 

B. SUNDERLAND. 



Exchange 

West. Res. Hist. Soc. 

1915 



SERMON. 



Ps. cxii, 6. — " The righteous shall be in everlasting remembrance." 
Prov. X, 7. — " The memory of the just is blessed." 

Could the truth of these words penetrate every heart, and 
fashion the characters of men, the world would contain a noble 
race. Sometimes a signal example 'Vises from among the multi- 
tudes, to give us a practical proof of its possiblity. The men who, 
from time to time, thus appear upon the field of observation, 
deserve to be marked, as astronomers watch the coming and going 
of the stars for the perfection of their celestial science. A star 
is great in its physical aspects only; but how much greater is a 
human soul, full of the spirit and the light of God, emerging upon 
the stage of action, traveling upon its course through the cycle 
of time, and finally ascending in its august and eternal motion into 
some higher and grander orbit of the life that is immortal. 

Such a man was Elisha Whittlesey. His memory is 
blessed, and his name will be held in everlasting remembrance, 
for he was a just and righteous man; he was just such a man as 
we may conceive might be the fruit of a state of society bordering 
on the age, if not existing in the heart of the age, of the mil- 
lenium itself. God gives us men like him, not for the mere pur« 
pose of idle eulogy, but to hold them up before us as illustrations 
of his own grace, and as examples for our imitation. And who 
that knew him would not say, " Let me die the death of the right- 
eous, and let my last end be like his." The biography of the 
good is valuable for two reasons : human nature contemplates it 
with grateful pleasure, as exhibiting its own capability — and there 
is ever a stimulus in the voice which speaks from4t to those who 
come after — " Go thou and do likewise." 

I shall speak of Mr. Whittlesey as to his history and character, 
with the hope of kindling in our minds a stronger desire and a 



more unwavering purpose to tread the path he trod, and seek the 
aims he sought. 

JMr. Elisha Whittlesey was horn in the State of Connecticut, 
in the closing year of the war of the Revolution. His father, 
John Whittlesey, was a farmer on the Shipkog river, in Washing- 
ton, X(!vv Preston Society, Litchfield county. The Rev. Jeremiah 
Day, fjither of President Day of Yale College, was then pastor of 
the church in that place, from whom Elisha in his infancy received 
the rite of baptism. From the farm to the church was a distance 
(if four and a half miles, over a broken and rocky country. No 
vehicles were then in use except the rude sleighs of winter. Ac- 
cording to Puritan practice, every member of the family, old 
enough and in health, was required to attend on the religious ser- 
vices of the Church. Those. who had not horses went on foot. 
Of those who had horses, two rode together, the fother and mother 
often each bearing a child. The church stood on a hill, and the 
school-house beyond it on Christian street. At an early age, 
Elisha was sent to school, receiving instruction in the church 
where school was kept a portion of the time, and another portion 
of the time in a cooper's shop near by, which was likewise used 
for the same purpose. When the lad was large and stout enough 
to stem the storms and stand the fatigue of the travel, he was sent 
on over to the school-house beyond. Mills Day, the youngest son 
of the pastor, being about the age of Elisha, they formed in their 
boyhood a close and affectionate intimacy. In 1792 the father of 
Elisha sold his farm in Washington, and bought another in Salis- 
bury, distant 30 miles. The event of removal to this new home 
fell heavily on the young people. To prepare for a separation so 
painful, they held preliminary meetings for some weeks, and 
learned the " Farewell Anthem," which was sung in the midst of 
a weeping assembly as the carts were loaded, and the teams pre- 
pared to start. The New England custom then was, for boys to do 
farm-work in summer and attend school in winter. They remained 
at home evenings, in free, familiar family conversation, or reading, 
writing, and cyphering. The days chosen for recreation were set 
apart by law — days of election and military parade. The election 
day, however, was not for voting, but for the inauguration of the 
Governor. Elisha's early education was conducted under the eye 
of some of the most distinguished persons of that period. Among 



his instruotjvs, first and last, were Jeremiah Day, afterwards 
President of Yale; David Whittlesey, an older cousin; Thomas 
Tucker, the famous preceptor of Dan bury. The day that bore him 
to this place was wet and gloomy ; and here it was that, soaked 
with the rain and bespattered with the mire of the way, the lad 
was homesick for the first and last time. He was, while here, in 
the family of an older brother, 3Iatthew B. Whittlesey, a lawyer. 
He was afterwards under the tuition of Professor Scofield; then of 
jNlr. Robbins, Librarian of the State Historical Society; and, 
finally, of Moses Stuart, so long Professor in the Theological Sem- 
inary at Andover. In 1803 he commenced the study of the law, 
in tiio ofiice of his brother Matthew ; and in the March term of 
1805 he passed the ordeal of admission to ihe bar of that noble 
profession, under the scrutiny of such men as Roger M. Sherman, 
Lewis B. Sturges, Asa Chapman, and David Daggett. His first 
practice was in New Millbrd, Litchfield county, and was of short 
duration ; for, at that period, two gentlemen from Canfield, Trum- 
bull county, Ohio, visited the place, and upon conversation with 
them the young lawyer decided to cross the Alleghanies, and 
plant himself upon the borders of the mighty West. But this step 
required the consent of a young lady, jMiss P. Mygatt, who, pre- 
ferring the chances of fortune thus held out, most readily ac- 
quiesced. On the 5th of January, 1806, they were united in 
marriage by the Rev. Mr. Ward, then pastor of the Danbury 
church. 

In a Jersey covered wagon with a good pair of horses, they set 
out upon their journey the 3d of June following, and arrived at 
the place of destination, the town of Canfield, Trumbull county, 
Ohio, on the 27th of the same month. The record of that jour- 
ney written in after years by his own hand, presents one of the 
most natural, life-like, and suggestive pictures of the then state 
of the country — the difiiculties and perils of emigration — the 
tone of society — the manners, customs, and habits of the people 
I have ever seen. It would protract this discourse beyond all 
reasonable length to introduce it here; but the materials are 
already published, and as a portion of the voluminous writings 
he has left behind him, they reflect as from a mirror the light of 
the early days. 

" The journey," says he, " was ended on the 27th of June, in 



6 

a clear clay, and the sun set as regularly in the west as at Dan- 
bury." 

On the following August, 1806, he was admitted by the 
supreme court sitting at Warren, Trumbull county, Ohio, to 
practice law, assiduously following his profession with the ex- 
ception of times when he was engaged in other labors and 
occupations, from that time onward to the date of his coming to 
Washington in 1841. But though the young lawyer was now 
fairly introduced in his new field to the professional life before him, 
he had a ready hand for whatever was necessary in manual labor; 
not disdaining, in the then state of the country, to use axe or hoe 
in the subjugation of the forest and the cultivation of the soil. 
He gave likewise a portion of his time to keeping school in the 
district for several years, and at a subsequent period his law 
office was the resort of many students, some of whom have since 
been among the most distinguished of our public men. 

He was not long in establishing a reputation as a lawyer, for 
every qualification which can command the respect and confidence 
of the community as well as of the court, and his practice at the 
bar was only limited by his powers of locomotion and endurance. 
Aside from the immediate duties of his profession, he freely 
gave his services to the public and to his country in positions of 
responsibility both military and civil. There is an account left 
in his own hand writing of the military ofiices he filled, which is 
full of quiet humor, and from which we find that he began his 
military career as corporal in a militia company, Danbury, Con- 
necticut, and he adds, '■'■ as my ofiicial services in that company 
were during the period when Mr. Jefi"erson said ' few officers die, 
and none resign,' I rose no higher than orderly sergeant, and to 
that eminence I think I attained I" In the autumn of the year 
after his arrival in Canfield, there was an election of officers, to 
fill vacancies in a company of infantry, and Mr. Whittlesey 
was elected Ensign : " and I equipped," says he, "in full uniform 
and feather !" It seems that having attended a military school 
in Connecticut, before his removal to Ohio, his familiarity with 
the manual of drill, &c., soon gave to him the discipline of the 
company, and in due time made him its captain — his commission 
as such being signed "by Thomas Kirker, Speaker of the Senate, 
and acting Governor of the State, and attested by William 



Creighton, Secretary of State, on the 27th February, 1808, and 
of the independence of this State, the fifth 1" Two years after 
he was appointed aid-de-camp to Major General Elijah Wads- 
worth, commanding the fourth division of Ohio militia, when he 
resigned his captaincy, and accepted his new position. Two 
years after this, August 22, 1812, he went with this rank into 
the service of the United States in the war with Great Britain. 
After this he was appointed to the rank of Brigade Major and 
Inspector, under General Perkins, and remained in the service 
till the spring of 1813, when he resigned. During the latter 
part of this period he was detailed to act as aid and private secre- 
tary to General Harrison, and it was then that their acquaintance 
was formed, with sentiments of mutual friendship and regard, 
which continued through life without abatement. 

The first civil office of more public distinction held by Mr. 
"Whittlesey, was that of district or prosecuting attorney for the 
county of Trumbull. He was appointed to this office by the 
court of common pleas, at the first full term after his admission 
to the bar in 1806, and continued to discharge its duties till the 
autumn of 1823, when he resigned. In the performance of 
these duties he is said never to have failed to convict the accused 
with one single exception, and that arose from his misuse of the 
term "were" for ''are," in the indictment. This certainty of 
success arose from the care with which he took every step. His 
practice was to attend in person before the grand jury, and inter- 
rogate the witnesses. If he thought the fact and the law did 
not warrant a conviction, he so informed the jury. His aim was 
to punish crime, but not to use the power of prosecution for any 
private or selfish purposes. His whole fee for a term of court 
was no more than twenty-five dollars. What would our great 
lawyers now-a-days think of such a sum as that for services more 
exacting, more assiduous, and more exhausting than we usually 
look for now. 

In addition to this office, he was twice elected to the House of 
Representatives of the General Assembly of the State of Ohio ; first 
in October, 1820, and again in 1821, when he was once more as- 
sociated with his old friend, General William Henry Harrison, in 
the public service of the State. In October, 1822, he was first 
elected from his Congressional district a member of the House of 



8 

Representatives of the Congress of the United States, and took 
his seat in December, 1823, a member of the Eighteenth Con- 
gress, and was seven times thereafter in succession returned to his 
seat by his constituents, until in the latter part of the Twenty-fifth 
Congress, 1837, when he resigned with a view to escape the 
wasting excitement of public life, and to attend to his more pri- 
vate and family affairs. 

The period of his Congressional life was one of an eventful and 
stormy character. It embraced the last two years of the second 
term of President Munroe, the four years of John Quincy Adams, 
the eight years of Andrew Jackson, and the first two years of 
Martin Van Buren. The Republic had grown to twenty-four 
States and three organized Territories, with ten millions of people. 
The end of this period showed a still further increase to twenty- 
seven States, with fourteen millions of people. The public ar- 
chives exhibit a scroll of distinguished names in the executive, 
legislative, judicial, and military departments of the Government 
during this period rarely equaled and never surpassed in the his- 
tory of any people or country on the globe. The measures before 
the country, the questions and issues of the time, were of the 
gravest character and enlisted the noblest talent, and brought out 
a display of civic and forensic power that makes this chapter of 
our national life one of the most illustrious in all its pages. Yet 
it was a period when the power of the people for self-govern- 
ment was subjected to the most rigid tests that can arise from a 
diversity of sectional interests, and political partizanship and am- 
bition. We were occupied mainly by questions of internal econ- 
onomy — the financial system, the tariff", the policy of the public 
lands, manufactures, commerce, the banking system, State rights, 
the Federal Constitution, and the great questions, doctrines, and 
debates which rose upon them. When Mr. Whittlesey first took 
his seat in Congress, December, 1823, it required, perhaps even 
more than it now does, talent, moral worth, and unblenching in- 
tegrity to secure this position, and to rise to commanding emi- 
nence and public confidence in it. At that time, Daniel D. 
Tompkins, as Vice-President presided in the Senate, composed of 
Buch men as Van Buren, Hayne, Macon, Johnson, Jackson, and 
Benton ; and Henry Clay was made Speaker of the House, com- 
prising such men as Webster, Cambreling, Randolph, Mangum, 



• 9 

McDuffie, Poinsett, aud Houston. la the Cabinet were John 
Quincy Adams, Secretary of State; Crawford, of the Treasury; 
Calhoun, of War; Crowuiugshield, of the Navy; and Wm. Wirt, 
Attorney General. At the time Mr. Whittlesey retired from 
Congres.s, great changes had taken place, which we have no time 
to specify in detail. Van Buren was in the Presidential chair, 
and R. M. Johnson was Vice President, the presiding ofl&cer of 
the Senate. The Cabinet w^as composed of Forsythe, Secretary of 
State; Woodbury, of the Treasury; Poinsett, of War; Dicker- 
son, of tlie Navy ; Kendall, Postmaster General ; and B. F. But- 
ler, of New York, Attorney General. Jame? K. Polk was 
Speaker of the House. Many of the great names had disappeared 
from the stage of public action ; many more had changed their 
position. In the Senate were Webster, Clay, Calhoun, Benton, 
Preston, and their compeers; in the House were men no less con- 
spicuous, among whom was ex-President John Quincy Adams. 
During this period, from 1823 to 1839, the great questions of in- 
ternal improvements, of the public lands, of the increase of terri- 
tory, of the Bank, of State rights, of the limits and powers of the 
Constitution, of nullification, and of the bank and Sub-Treasury 
schemes, had been throughly discussed and in part settled. It 
does not fall in my province now to attempt to give a history of 
these great, exciting issues. It was, no doubt, in the memorable 
debate in the Senate, and in the contest between Hayne and 
Webster, that the American forum rose to its highest pitch of 
power. It was in the mighty conflict with the United States Bank 
that the commercial and financial interests of the country passed 
through, their greatest ordeal. It was in the comparative calm 
that followed these excitements, and before the next rising aud 
more mighty wave which carried General Harrison into the Presi- 
dential chair, that Mr. Whittlesey resigned his seat in Congress, 
and sought once more the scenes of private life. 

To speak of him in his congi-essional career, aud in his po,si- 
tion and influence relative to other distinguished men of the 
body of which he was so long a member and an ornament, it is 
but fair to state that he won and held his place among them 
rather by the solid and intrinsic worth of his character than by 
the more brilliaqt and popular qualities of transcendant genius. 
He never consumed the time of the House by long and frequent 
2 



10' 

spceclios, nnd lie never defirmded llie conntry by Avant of dili- 
gence or inatteiitioii to the public huHiness. lie was, soon after 
takititi' liis seat in Congress, ajipointed cluiinnan of tlie Committee 
on Post Office- and Post Roads, and subsequently placed on the 
Coumiittee of Claims, and finally became its chairman, a position 
which he held to the day of his leaving the body. This com- 
mittee, though not charged with those matters which would be 
likely to give notoriety <aud eclat to its members, yet so far as the 
interests of private and public justice were concerned^ was one 
of the most important of all the committees of the House, re- 
quiring a clear head, a deep sense of equity, the strictest 
probity, and the most patient and assiduous industry. Its task 
was augmented by the very nature of the work assigned it, hav- 
ing so often to encounter the selfishness, the cupidity, and the 
passionate impatience of man. It was necessary to guard on the 
one hand that the Government should not be defrauded by extrav- 
ai;ant and unfounded demands, and on the other that no wron<r 
should be done to the private, and in many cases, poor and suffer- 
ing claimants. And in this connection it has been well said of 
him by another, " that he was peculiarly qualified for the chair- 
manship of such a committee. He was gifted with that admir- 
able courage which never quailed before the seductive blandish- 
ments of wealth, or the threatening importance of power. He 
never hesitated to espouse a cause simply represented by the 
weak. Strong combinations of men in position to carry a point 
which he believed to be wrong had no terrors for him." 

One of the first groat debates in which he participated arose 
upon the report of his conimittce on the claim of a person pro- 
fessing to be a citizen of New Orleans for indemnity for the im- 
pressment into the United States service of a negro claimed to 
be his slave, and it is curious to observe that after a discussion 
extending through some three weeks, and conducted by such 
men as Livingston, Owen, McDuffie, Everett, Randolph, and 
others, one of these gentlemen wound up with the complacent 
conclusion that it had been admitted on all hands not only that 
there is such a thing as property in man, that its character is in- 
violable, but also more especially that this Government can never 
disturb that question. What would the author of that speech, 
Owen of Alabama, think of it now in 1S64. It is needless to 



11 

say that taough the report oT the committee \v:is adverse to the 
chiiui, it was amended so as to pay the man, and give a more 
solemn sanction to the doctrine then set Ibrlh by a vote of the 
majority of the House, in viohition ol' ail the precedents and 
hvw in the case. Mr. Whittlesey resisted this result with all his 
mio-ht, but that was in 1828 instead of 1864. 

In the year 1832, when it was feared, as afterward proved to 
be the case, that an awful scourge, the Asiatic cholera, then 
traveling westward in its circuit of the earth, would visit this 
western world and decimate our population, it had been suggested 
to President Jackson, by some Christian gentlemen, that it 
might be suitable for h'nn to appoint a day of national fasting, 
humiliation, and prayer to Almighty God, that He would avert or 
mitigate its evils This suggestion not being readily acted upon, 
a movement to the same end was initiated in the Senate, and 
under a joint resolution came into the House, whereupon a long 
and earnest debate sprang up, in which Mr. Whittlesey took the 
most lively interest. It called forth the most elaborate speeches 
from such men as Wickliffe, Bell, Burges, Adams, Polk, Mercer, 
Clay of Alabama, and others, some of whom opposed it on various 
grounds, but sustained by the fidelity and Christian sentiment of 
such men as Mr. Whittlesey, and those who acted with him, it 
was finally carried, thus saving the cr^ dit of the Fedeial Congress 
and setting an example to the nation. The only other debate to 
which I can now refer wherein he showed his great perseverance 
and fidelity to the cause of the people was that which sprung up 
on the right of petition in 1836, and which produced a long, 
angry, and most desperate conflict of years, in which such men as 
Wise and Marshall took the lead in endeavoring to stifle the prayers 
of the people, and John Quincy Adams led off' as the old man 
eloquent in favor of the right I need not add that in the sequel 
the champions of the people were triumphant, and the first great 
blow had been given to the arrogant despotism of a southern 
oligarchy. 

In all these exciting scenes Mr. Whittlesey never lost sight of 
the responsibility or the decorum belonging to his position. He 
bore himself above all meanness and scurrility — always calm, de- 
liberate, dignified — maintaining the greatest respect for his asso- 
ciates, and insisting that every propriety should be observed 



12 

toward the officers and members botli of his own House and of 
the Senate, and of all the departments of the Government. His 
principle in all things was justice and equity to the humblest 
and the poorest, resistance to the most powerful when in the 
wrong, without the fear or favor of man before his eyes, strict 
attention to the public business, economy in the public disburse- 
ments, and purity in the public offices everywhere. He sympa- 
thized in general with what was known as the Whig Party in 
his day on the great questions of national policy, but he was 
never a partisan politician. He was a great friend and patron 
of the interests of this District and of this city, and advocated 
on all occasions all wise, just, and sound measures for the ma- 
terial growth and prosperity of the Capital of his country. He 
never sought office for the sake of emolument or personal aggran- 
dizement, but only accepted it when freely tendered to him upon 
a principle favorite Avith him that every man owed a duty to his 
country which bound him, other things being equal, to fulfill to the 
best of his ability the obligations which his fellow countrymen 
might be disposed to lay officially upon him ; and what is still 
more remarkable, he rivaled even Washington himself in the 
strictness and accurracy with which he kept his accounts between 
himself and the country he was called to serve. It has been 
recorded of him " as characteristic of his moral worth and strict 
integrity that the proper records will show that while in Congress, 
every day's absence from his seat was noted in his account for pay. 
If such absence was on committee or other duty connected with his 
office as a member of the House the fact was stated. If the 
absence was on his own private business the Government was 
credited with so much at the rate of eight dollars per day. The 
same scrupulous care in regard to mileage was exhibited. Hs 
never claimed more than for the actual distance by the most di- 
rect route from his home to the Capitol. It is believed that no 
other instance of such nicety is to be found in the congressional 
accounts of that period." 

This was the kind of man that laid down his legislative robes, 
and after so long a service found rest in the more retired but not 
less congenial walks of his private, domestic, and social life at 
home. He returned to Canfield, Ohio, in July, 1838, where his 
family, consisting of wife and ten children — seven sons and three 



13 

daughters — some now grown to manliooil and womanhood, still 
with one exception remained. Here he spent some three years, 
resuming the practice of his profession, and following the voca- 
tion likewise of a farmer, which was always atrreeable to him, 
after the example of the Roman Cincinnatus. 

In the month of February, 1841, General Harrison, his old 
friend having been elected to the Presidency, and about to be 
inaugurated in his office, wrote to Mr. Whittlesey, offering him a 
seat in his cabinet, which he in reply accepted, but which arrange- 
ment before the day of inauguration was overturned by the 
efforts of an Ohio politician. Subsequent to this, on the 
17th of March, 1841, he was appointed to the office of Sixth 
Auditor, or Auditor of the Treasury for the Post Office Depart- 
ment, and entered immediately upon its duties. This position he 
accepted on two conditions, with both of which President Harri- 
son complied — first, that no one was to be removed to make a 
place for him — second, that no clerk should be appointed or re- 
moved in the Bureau of which he was to be the head, without 
his concurrence. After the death of Harrison, his successor, 
President Tyler, confirmed the same conditions which were ob- 
served for more than two years, and then violated, as indeed were 
many other pledges of that most unhappy '^Accident" as he was 
called. A clerk under Mr. Whittlesey was removed and another 
inexperienced in the business was put in his place without the 
Auditor's consent. There being no satisfactory explanation of 
this act, Mr. Whittlesey resigned on the 30th of September, 
1843, and again went into private life, choosing to maintain his 
principles rather than keep his place. He would not be tam- 
pered with in a matter of personal honor and the veracity of his 
word. Four years now passed away, at the end of which time 
he was called again to Washington in 1847, to act as General 
Agent of the Washington National Monument Association, and 
continued in this capacity till May, 1849, when he resigned the 
office, but was afterwards again called to manage the affairs of the 
Association as its president, and continued to do so without 
charge vmtil 1855, when he was removed by a change of the 
political party in the muncipal government of the Capital, and 
since then the great column has been standing where it was then 



14 

arrested, a silent reproof of the act whicli displaced sucli a man 
from the care of its rising to completion. 

Time, however, had brought new changes over the nation, and 
Zachary Taylor, the hero of the Mexican war, had been advanced 
to the Presidential chair. In June, 1849, President Taylor ap- 
pointed Mr. Whittlesey First Comptroller of the Treasury of the 
United States, and on the first of that month he entered upon 
his new and responsible duties. He held this office through the 
Taylor and Fillmore administrations, and on the accession of 
General Pierce as President, Mr. Whittlesey being opposed to 
the principles on which he had been elevated to the Chief Magis- 
tracy, resigned. The resignation, however, was refused, and Mr. 
Whittlesey was retained in office until Buchanan's accession, 
when for like reasons he airain resifrned, and this time his resiir- 
nation was accepted. Again he went into retirement at his home 
in Canfield, now having been rendered desolate by the death of 
his beloved wife, which occurred in June, 1855, and by the dis- 
persion of most of his children and the death of two — George 
B. and Elisha M. Whittlesey — a noble man long associated with 
his father in the business of the Comptroller's office. Those 
were the days of his sorrow and desolation. But ever active, 
ever engaged in useful occupations, he put his private business, 
long too much neglected by reason of his public service, thoroughly 
in order, and spent some time in traveling and visiting his now 
numerous and widely scattered relatives. It was, too, at this time, 
that an effort was made by certain parties of unprincipled men, 
whom, in the prior administration of the office of First Comp- 
troller, he had offended by exposing and rejecting their unfounded 
claims for large sums of money upon the Treasury, attempted to 
give him trouble by holding him responsible in a civil suit at 
court in this District. The effort, however, totally failed to affect 
him in his character or reputation, and only served the more to 
manifest the recklessness and unscrupulous spirit by which they 
were animated. 

One of the most noted of these cases was the Levy claim, for 
pretended losses of many thousands of dollars during the Mexican 
war, which, though long urged by all the ingenuity, persistence, 
and determination of shrewd advocates and cunning and bold as- 
sociates, and showing a complication of testimony voluminous and 



15 

vexatious, lie carefully sifted to the bottom, and resisted for its 
injustice to the end, settiu;^' forth the grounds of his decision in a 
document of many pages, most carefully and elaborately prepared. 
It was in this manner that, during his long career of public life, 
he had established a national reputation for untiring perseverance 
and scrupulous honesty. The Presidential election of 18G0 
brought to the head of the nation its present Chief Magistrate, 
who again, in May, 1801, called him from his retirement to re- 
sume the important duties of this office, which he had held so 
long, and in which he continued to act though at an advanced 
p.ge, with slight interruptions, owing to the pressure of his duties 
and the infirmities of years, till the very day of his death, the 7th 
of January, 1863. Among the many commendations which were 
issued from the public press on the occasion of this appointment, 
reflecting credit alike on the President, Secretary of the Treasury, 
and Comptroller, I transcribe one, which, in giving a brief outline 
of his public life, says substantially, in words of perfect truth and 
soberness, as follows : 

"The President of the United States has recalled to the office 
of Comptroller of the Treasury the lion. Elisha AVhittlesey, of 
Ohio, and that distinguished scholar and statesman has accepted 
the post of honor and responsibility assigned him. When it was 
first intimated that he would be recalled, we doubted if he would 
listen to it, for the reason that his increasing years had, as we 
supposed, suggested to him the expediency of passing into that 
comparative solitude which attends private or domestic life. Tlie 
country, however, or at least all who are conversant with the life 
and character of Mr. Whittlesey, will rejoice that he has accepted 
the invitation. He is a remarkable and most wonderful man. It 
was he who, in the years of 1832-3, redeemed the Post Office De- 
partment from absolute chaos. He is endowed with talent and 
genius which most admirably fit him for the office of Comptroller, 
through whose hands every claim against the Government of the 
United States, real and unfounded, must pass. No just claim was 
ever rejected by him, and no unjust one ever succeeded in obtain- 
ing access to the National Treasury. Even the famous Gardiner 
claim was not allowed by him, and only succeeded for a time 
through the interference of a Congressional commission. He is 
passionately fond of investigation ; and no problem, however com- 



16 

plicated or abstruse, was ever found too tedious for his inquiring 
mind. If he had remained in his place during the last Adminis- 
tration he would unquestionably have saved the country millions 
of dollars, which were stolen by the desperadoes who found their 
way into the Cabinet." 

And the very highest compliment, says another writer, was 
paid to him in the fact that those of more lax political and finan- 
cial ethics long derisively styled him " the watch-dog of the Treas- 
ury." And yet no man was ever more careful of the character 
and good name of his fellow-men, and especially of those who 
were in any way connected with or employed in the Department. 
An instance of this I venture here to relate. During the last 
year of his life, I was led to preach a discourse on honesty, 
in which I took occasion to express the dangers of public corrup- 
tion and official bribery in these tumultuous times; and without 
calling names, I related an instance of an audacious attempt to 
bribe a public officer, which had then recently been communicated 
to me, and commended the stern and more than lloman virtue of 
that officer for having resented, as I was told he did, the despica- 
ble offer. Somehow, Mr. Whittlesey, who listened to the dis- 
course, received the impression that I had reference to some one 
in the Department of the Treasury, and the next day I received 
from him a letter, couched in terms of the greatest courtesy, affec- 
tion, and regard — this was always his style — in which he entered 
into an explanation to show that, by the rules of the Department, 
no such instance could have occurred, and that I must have been 
misinformed ; and the point of his letter seemed to be an exceed- 
ing sensibility even to the suspicion of the possibility of such an 
occurrence. I was only too glad to hasten to relieve his mind, 
by informing him that the occurrence to which I alluded took 
place in another Department altogether, as I was informed ; and 
that if he derived the impression from my remarks in the sermon 
that it had occurred in his Department, I had been unfortunate 
in not making myself fully understood. His great capabilities 
were thus equally exerted to prevent fraud and dishonesty in the 
vile, and to repel the suspicions of it in the upright and the good. 
Beside all these public labors, Mr. Whittlesey was ever a friend 
of the great and noble charities which spring from the church of 
Grod in the philanthrophic and Christian associations that tend 



17 

to the amelioration of the condition of mankind. Flaving early 
in life made a public profession of the Christian faith by uniting 
with the church in his adopted town ; and having ever a spirit of 
generous sympathy with all that is wise and good in the great 
schemes of Christian enterprise that have marked the present 
century, he was always ready to respond to the call of suffering 
humanity, and to aid by his utmost power in its progress and 
elevation. If he could not do all that his wide and genial nature 
prompted to be done, he contented himself with accomplishing 
whatever was practicable in a just comprehension of all the cir- 
cumstances. It was thus that, actuated by such motives, he early 
became and ever continued a steadfast friend of the American 
Colonization cause, which, whatever may be said of its present 
relations to the subjects of its existence, must justly claim to 
have prepared the way and laid the foundations for a better and 
greater hope for the future of Africa. He saw from the begin- 
ning the importance of this great work, and more than thirty 
years ago he prepared and delivered a most elaborate, instructive, 
and powerful address upon the whole question, which had great 
influence in opening the eyes of the people, and in diffusing a 
better understanding of the objects proposed throughout the 
nation, and which is now treasured as one of its most valued doc- 
uments in the archives of the Society. And since that day he 
has rendered to the cause most invaluable services, which were 
duly acknowledged in the following action of the Executive 
Committee : 

"At a meeting of the Executive Committee of the American Coloni- 
zation Society, on the evening of the 9th instant, the Corresponding Sec- 
retary, the Rev. R. R. Gurley, announced the sudden decease of the ven- 
erable Elisha Whittlesey, a Vice President of this Society, for several 
years chairman of the Executive Committee. 

"The following resolutions were then submitted and unanimously 
adopted : 

'^Resolved, That, in this hour of national calamity and distress, this 
committee are affected by a grief not to be expressed, in the removal 
from their presence and counsels of the venerable Elisha Whittlesey, so 
long and so eminently devoted, in Congress and high ofSces of public; 
trust, to the honor and welfare of our country, to this Society, and to 
the interests of human virtue, improvement, and happiness ; and that 
our consolation under the loss we sustain must be derived alone from 



18 

resignation to the supreme Providence in wLich he ever ceniided, and 
which directed and supiiorted him in his varied and multiplied exertions 
for mankind. 

"Resolved, That the members of this committee, and the friends gen- 
erally of the American Colonization Society, can never cease to cherish 
a warm and grateful remembrance of their departed friend for his early, 
constant, zealous, and able services for this institution, (both as for 
many years chairman of the Executive Committee and a Vice President 
of the Society,) to the progress of which he was permitted eminent!}' to 
contribute during his long life by his writings, his counsels, his efforts, 
and his prayers. 

'■'Resolved, That the preceding resolutions be published and commu- 
nicated to the family of the deceased." 

Nor was his interest confined to this great work of human benefi- 
cence alone. He carried with him a deep and earnest sympathy for 
and an intelligent appreciation of the necessity and fundamental 
importance of maintaining the body, the doctrine, the ordinance, 
the law, the spirit, the mission of the Christian (]hurch — and 
this alike whether at home or abroad. He thus gave a most sub- 
stantial support to the cause of modern Christian missions — to all 
sound methods of personal and social reformation — to the Bible and 
Tract and Educational operations of the age. He favored all institu- 
tions and instrumentalities which had in view the purity of the 
public morals, the religious culture and proper discipline of chil- 
dren, and the general improvement of the temper and tone of 
the times ; and through all his life he gave himself as much as 
possible personally to the work of serving and maintaining the 
march of a Christian civilization. Besides this he prepared 
many documents on miscellaneous subjects, and lectures of popu- 
lar interest and concern. Among these was a historical address 
delivered on the occasion of the reunion of a large circle of his 
family kindred, which is replete with historical information of 
the early times of our fathers. In addition to all these labors he 
kept for many years a diary of current events, and a journal of 
autobiography, compiling with these an immense mass of material 
of the most valuable kind, on many subjects now to be found in 
the voluminous nianuscript and printed papers he has left behind 
him. So that he probably approached as near as any other man 
of his time to the well-known habit of John Quincy Adams in 
recording from day to day the scenes of his experience, and the 



19 

subjects of his reading and observation. An affecting example 
of this is to be found in the last vohime of his journal, on seven 
pages only of which did his hand trace the customary story 
of the day. I have had it in my possession in the preparation of 
this discourse. There it is, the close of the year 1862 and the 
beginning of the year 1863, written in his own hand, himself 
giving an account of his own rapid approach to the limits of his 
earthly life, up to the very last moment until the pen dropped 
from his fingers, the lamp of his evening labor was extinguished, 
he gathered up his feet into his bed and in an hour was sleepino- 
in the slumber that knows no waking till the morning of the 
resurrection. All this is so characteristic of the man and of his 
departure from this world, that I venture to extract sentences 
here and there from his own pen during the last days of his livino- 
among us. I find, for example, an entry on Sunday, December 
21, 1862, after his first attack, which was one week before — and 
was described by him as vertigo, in which he thought himself 
dying, but from which he so far recovered as to resume many of 
his daily habits of life — an entry like the following : 

Sunday, December 21, 1862. — Referring to myself, as he was 
then unable to attend the public worship of the day, he says : '' he 
has the belief that the rebellion and distresses of the country are 
the result of sin and the demoralization of the people ; and he ex- 
erts himself to convince his hearers that the remedy is repentance. 
How few lay these things to heart. Lord, do revive this work 
among us !" 

" Tuesday, December 23. — I am much better this morning. I 
thank God for his goodness in the improvement of my health. 

" Wednesday, December 24. — Rested very well during the night, 
but feel the eff'ects of too much talking. 

'^ Wednesday, December 31, 1862. — This is the last day of the year 
1862, and I record the personal services of the Almighty toward 
me and toward my f\unily. My personal affliction is light when 
compared with that of others. 

" Thursday, January 1, 1863. — My thanks are due and given 
to God, the Author of my being ; and although his afflictive hand 
is tenderly laid upon me, to remind me I am mortal and have but 
a few days remaining to prepare for an eternity that never ends, 
it is a mercy, and I dcvoutlj ask for a resignation to the divine 



li ' 20 

will, for that clue preparatioQ and sauctification of heart whicla 
i i shall euable me to inquire, when the hour of death arrives, Oh 
ii death where is thy sting i"' 

ij So communing with himself each day, he lingered Friday, Sat- 

i urday, Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, January 7, 1863, 
and each day wrote a page of reflections on the preceding until 
the last. It is aifecting to look at the last sentence, the last word, 
the last letter, the full dot at the end and very bottom of the page, 
and to know as we do that in two hours after that dot was made 
his spirit had taken its flight into eternity. 

The appreciation of such a man, and the sorrow at his depart- 
ure, was immediately manifest in the action of public bodies — in 
the Department of Government to which he belonged — in resolu- 
tions of associations — in articles of the press — in the funeral ser- 
vices both in Washington and at Ganfield — and in the many testi- 
monials of public sensibility upon the tidings of his departure 
from this world. 

To the suggestions in a paper which was found in his ofiice im- 
mediately after his death, written in his own hand and covered 
with an oflacial envelope, directed to his children, and which 
appeared to have been prepared many months before, and left as 
though he had already received an admonition of the coming close 
of life, the funeral services were conformed and carried out. This 
paper is so characteristic of the man, that I venture to introduce 
it here : 

" Washington, April 20, 1862. 
"My Dear Children : At my advanced age, I cannot reasonably expect 
to live much longer on earth, and I deem it proper to leave instructions 
in regard to my funeral in the event of death, and to the disposal of my 
person in the event of disability. 

"If I decease in Washington, my wish is that this tabernacle of clay 
be removed to Canfield, and deposited north of the monument erected to 
the memory of your dear mother — my birth and death to be inscribed on 
the monument. Having lived an unostentatious life, my desire is that 
the funeral ceremonies and all the proceedings comport therewith. 

'■If I should be sick when in office, and incapacitated for transacting 
business, from the happening of either event, I wish the President of the 
United States to be informed of it, and that this is my resignation of the 
office of Comptroller, that he conferred by the advice of the Senate. 

"As our family is widely separated, if 1 should die here, I suggest to 
you whether it would not be expedient to embalm my body. 



21 

" You will judge of having any other religious exercises here than 
prayer and singing. 

"I know that those with whom I have lived so many years in Ohio in 
uninterrupted peace and harmony, will desire to pay the same respect to 
my memory that I have to their deceased relatives and friends, and it is 
proper that religious services be observed at Canfield. 

"If in office, and from any cause unable to attend to its duties, it will 
be best to take me to Canfield immediately. 

"My dear children, grand-children, and great-grand-children, my 
prayer is that we be prepared, through the mediation and atonement of 
Christ, to appear at the judgment seat at the last day. 
" Affectionately, 

"Elisha Whittlesey." 

I have no intention to comment on the many subjects of pro- 
found interest which the life of such a man suggests, much less 
to attempt to pronounce an elaborate eulogy in memory of the 
dead. All that can be said has already been said by others, far 
better than it ever can be in my power to say it. A single extract 
from a letter written to me the last week only, and without the 
least idea on the part of its author that I should use it thus pub- 
licly, will serve to show the kind of man he was, and the impres- 
sion he everywhere made of the great purity, elevation, and moral 
worth of his character. The writer says : 

" My personal knowledge of the late Comptroller extends only 
from February, 1862, to the date of his death. But during that 
brief time, how full and rich are my recollections of him ! In the 
course of my experience I do not remember to have been more 
impressed by any man ; for, while no man could have been more 
unaflFected or devoid of stateliness, so to speak, no one could pos- 
sibly have been more dignified, or more kind and courteous. But 
it has seemed to me that the influence of his example was more to 
the purpose than even the admirable counsel and quiet wisdom 
which fell from his lips. For whose life could possibly have been 
more full of instruction than his ? And it was his consistent, 
ever-reliable, honorable life, which inspired a love of industry, 
order, and exemplary conduct in all who were daily associated 
with him. It was impossible to be inattentive, frivolous, or disre- 
spectful in his presence. Habits of business with him were laws. 
His punctuality was never to be questioned. The duties of his 
office frequently demanded grave decisions upon questions of much 



'>'2 

intricacy, involving interests of great magnitude. These decisions, 
after a rigid deliberation, were given with a firmness which never 
wavered. He sought out the trutii, announced it, and held to it, 
no matter who opposed. lie acquired the reputation and almost 
the fame of another Aristides." 

It would be impossible for us to embrace here the numerous 
testimonies which show how deeply the character and life of Mr. 
Whittlesey have impressed the public mind and heart of the 
nation. Nor can we fully analyze the qualities of such a charac- 
ter, even to our own satisfaction ; but there are some points of 
especial interest and importance which we would hold up for 
the regard and imitation of all our countrymen, and which can 
never be too strongly urged upon the attention of American 
youth — the rising element and force of coming generations. 

1. There was in him great simplicity and dignity of manner. 
As has been well said none were more affable and kind, yet no 
one felt like trifling in his presence. Such an urbanity and sweet 
dignity flowed from him always, that every one approaching him 
immediately felt the air of it, and partook of the spirit of it. 

2 There was in him a deep sense of justice and equity. How 
pure was his work and how firm was his purpose to maintain the 
right. Probably no man ever lived in this nation that excelled 
him in these particulars. Hence confidence in him was un- 
bounded. His honesty passed into a proverb long before the 
mission of his life had closed. 

3. He had a wonderful faculty for system, order, punctuality, 
and industry. All these qualities he daily illustrated down to 
the most minute details of life. And while he was every day 
doing great and solemn things in which the very honor and life 
of his country were involved, he walked in the pleasant garments 
of all kindly courtesies and all gentle amenities. It was often 
surprising to me how he could find time to do so much, and 
whence he had strength of body and mind for so many years day 
by day to be always at his word, and always where he had 
before arranged to be. 

4. Whatever he did he did from principle, which filled him with 
a powerful sense of individual responsibility. When he assumed 
any relation in life he did it with a full purpose to fulfill all its 
obligations to the end. He did not believe in empty covenants 



23 

aufl idle promises. His eugageineuts curried with them all there 
was of him to fulfill them ; often when he could not be at the 
meetings of the church — by reason of providential hindrance — 
although his domicil and his church connection had never been 
transferred to this city, yet he took pains to send or make the 
explanation of his absence. It was a remarkable feature of his 
character, and as rare as it is remarkable. It ran through his 
whole life in all his social and public experience — as son, brother, 
husband, father, advocate, captain, church member, legislator, 
auditor, comptroller, member of this organization and of that — 
he held himself under obligations of duty, and when for any 
reason failing to fulfill it, he held himself accountable to his asso- 
ciates. In the use of all his faculties of body and mind, of all 
his possessions, offices, influence, and regard among men, he never 
forgot that he was a steward of God, and as such must render a 
faithful account of all that had been entrusted to him. 

5. His nature was a deep fountain of the utmost tenderness, 
flowing from a mind and heart as firm as adamant in its sense of 
right and the determination to maintain it. And all this was en- 
riched by a sound intellect, varied information, and long experi- 
ence. So that he comprehended in deed the threefold names of 
the well known epigram of praise. He was truly " a gentleman, 
a scholar, and a Christian." He was all this during the period of 
my acquaintance with him. I knew him only in his last years, 
and often thought of him as of a rare old man — the type of that 
manhood which we read of in the records of elder days — and one 
of the few links that bind us to the mighty generation of great 
and good men in the past. 

6. But with all his virtues and amenities of life, nothing went 
deeper into his whole nature than his simple, earnest, cloudless, 
beautiful Christian faith. This was the chord, that once struck 
vibrated to the sweetest and holiest accents of his being. Often 
at the name of Christ his eye would fill with tears, and his voice 
pause while the heart was too full for utterance. In the pious 
and patriotic devotion of his life, probably no man of his gener- 
ation surpassed him. He loved the church, he loved his country, 
and gloried as a Christian statesman in all the triumphs of the 
one, and in all the prosperity of the other. 

And in these respects what a legacy has he bequeathed, not 



24 

only to his children and immediate family kindred, but to the 
Church of God on earth and the American nation. How bright 
is the page that contains his history, how unsullied the name and 
how pure the life that now he furnishes for the imitation of all 
who survive him. His name cannot be forgotten. The memory 
of the just is blessed, and the righteous shall be held in everlast- 
ing remembrance. 



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